Bt Joins Bskyb In £3bn Premier League Rights Sale

BT has secured two rights packages to broadcast live Premier League games for the first time, securing the rights to 38 matches a season from 2013/14 to 2015/16, and joining BSkyB – which secured five packages – in a record sale of £3.018bn.

40 extra games a season will be shown in the new cycle, and means significantly more revenue for all Premier League clubs even before international rights deals are concluded. A record 154 matches, 40% of the total number of top flight fixtures will now be shown. 

ESPN will no longer broadcast Premier League games in the UK beyond next season, while Al Jazeera also failed to secure rights after being widely tipped as a contender. 

BT has won the rights to 38 live games including Saturday lunchtime kick-offs, a time slot often featuring high-profile games due to police request or to cater for the Premier League’s Asian audience.

BT will also broadcast bank holiday and midweek games and will pay £246m a season.

Meanwhile, BSkyB has committed £760m a year for the rights to 116 live games, in an extension of its existing partnership as the original broadcaster since the Premier League’s launch in 1992. Sky Sports will continue its ‘Super Sunday’ and ‘Monday Night Football’ broadcasts, having purchased Saturday evening games, two packages of live Sunday matches and Monday evening fixtures.

Speaking at recent editions of the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club, both Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore and Sky Sports managing director Barney Francis paid tribute to the long-running relationship between the two bodies.

In May, the BBC retained its Premier League highlights package until the end of the 2015/16 season in a deal worth £179.7m, a 4.5% increase on the previous agreement.

Andrea Radrizzani, MP & Silva CEO, said on the deal: ‘The surprisingly high rise in the value of the Premier League’s new broadcast deal in the UK is a further demonstration of the ever increasing popularity of the competition.’

‘Today’s announcement reinforces that an increasing number of fans are consuming sport through digital media, suggesting that BT will be one of a great many new entrants into sports broadcasting in the coming year.’

‘Given millions of football fans in Asia stay up through the night to ensure they never miss their favourite English club or Premier League player, it is clear the attraction of the Premier League is truly global and is only goingto get more popular.’